The origin of the natives of Samoa set of genetics to a standstill

an international team of researchers led by Stephen Macgarvie from brown University analyzed the genomes of approximately 1200 people living in Samoa, but are unable to accurately recreate the tangled history of the settlement of this Pacific island.

Results genomic analysis published in the journal PNAS, and briefly about it tells UPI. The history of the settlement of the island of Samoa has received a new secret once geneticists have tried to fill in the blanks of the evolutionary process. However, the purpose was somewhat different.

In recent years, the islanders faced the disease, which doctors suspect, they have a genetic predisposition. In particular, many indigenous people suffer from obesity and diabetes.

Genomic analysis has allowed scientists to estimate the population of Samoans who arrived on the island about 3,000 years ago. For two thousand years the population of Samoa was varied from 700 to 3400. About 1000 years ago, it has grown to 10 thousand inhabitants.

In the eighteenth century to the island arrival of Europeans. With them they brought disease, immunity to which the natives were not. The population began to decline. About 150 years ago, the situation has stabilized. Now the islanders are once again faced with a crisis – the prevalence of obesity in Samoa reached a record high.

the Study showed that modern Samoans received most of their genetic heritage from the various Austronesian ancestors. They are descendants of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan and many other Islands of Southeast Asia and New Guinea. This discovery refutes the commonly accepted theory.

Previously it was thought that direct ancestors of these people were the natives of Papua New Guinea. But geneticists have found that the Samoans have inherited from them only 24 per cent of its genome. This is different from most other Polynesian groups that genetically lead the line from the Papuans.

“the data show that the current population of Samoa is the result of demographic mixing, from the earliest times 3000 years ago and until recently the colonial period, believes Macgarvie. – Therefore, any issues on the alleged genetic influences on the modern lifestyle of the islanders should be set in the context of population history.”